Smash Bros. Director Is Stressed Out Deciding The Roster

[Jmp_man]

As long as we can finally play as Ridley I'm not too fussed.

Nope, still too big.

I remember Sakurai saying that Brawl hit a sort of Roster Critical Mass and I thought of a way to both expand and shrink the roster.

Skins

Mix some of the clones together and make them unlockable skins for the same character. I.E. cut Luigi as a character and make him and Dr.Mario as unlockble skins for Mario. Or Toon and Young Link become unlockable Link skins. You can get a lot of Mileage out of this.

Yes... Yes! YYYEEESSS!!!

Seriously, I thought they'd pick that up with what they did for Wario. It just makes sense!

No... No! NOOOOOOOO. Sorry, but I REFUSE to believe they would cut characters like Luigi just to make them Mario skins. Also what about the size differences between Young Link and Adult Link? Some ideas make sense (Mario -> Dr. Mario), but please be rational or we could end up with a game called "Super Smash Mario: Mario's Mario Mayhem" with 128 different skins for each Mario.

 

[Sould1n]

snip.

I agree with most of what you said. I only wanted to comment on your choices of new characters. Little Mac was in Brawl...as an assist trophy. Honestly, that was fine for me, because he doesn't really have much to him other than being a boxer. What special moves would he have? As for Ridley, I love the idea of him being a new character, but the logistics of putting him as a playable character, considering his size difference to the rest of the cast, would be tricky to figure out. I mean, Bowser is a lot bigger than Mario, but Ridley is the size of 4 or 5 Bowsers. They'd have to scale him down, figure out how to make him move (since he isn't bipedal)...better to just leave him as he was in Brawl, a boss character.

Oh wow... with how long my post was I'm quite surprised someone replied to it. Thank you.

I know that both of these characters have appeared in Super Smash Bros in some form but I honestly believe they should have been included as characters. As far as Little Mac goes, it might tricky but it shouldn't be impossible to think of a move-set for him. They managed to do so with Zelda (I don't remember her using those spells), Ice Climbers (since when could they breathe ice), R.O.B. and latest of all, Wii Fit Trainer. His down B could be a move where weaves on the spot. In the weaving state he will dodge the next attack, like a counter, but instead of attacking back it instead gives him a star. This affects his up B (Star Punch), his B (Knock-out Punch) and his forward B (Rapid Punch). These moves would either require and use up all three stars for a strength boost or use only one of the stars, depends on the move or which way would work best. Star Punch is his uppercut from Punch-Out featuring Mike/Mr Dream, the Knock-out Punch comes from Super Punch Out as does the Rapid Punch (which I imagine could be a rush move, runs along and dishes out a combo on the go). For his final smash, his Giga-Mac transformation from the Punch-Out Wii game would work. I could better present this but my internet's being buggy and I don't have the time to go into full detail. But a Little Mac move-set can work, and for an alternative try this one; http://sould1n.deviantart.com/art/Newcomer-Little-Mac-201315505 . The guy?s generally very good at thinking of move-sets for characters.

Ridley's size being a problem is a silly but constant point people bring up. Bowser's size changes constantly in his games, while Olimar's about the size of a GameCube memory card but had his size increased for Brawl. I assure you, it wouldn't be a big deal to adjust his size for SSB. Besides, Metroid is in need of another representative and he is the best they've got. Still thank you very much for replying to my comment, I appreciate it.

 

[Invariel]

Just going to propose this here:

Tetris Block
Falling into place.

Would make my century.

 

[Sould1n]

Oh ho... man.... here we go again.

I really, truly feel for poor Sakurai, as even though he does pour his heart and soul into the franchise, working on the games must be truly stressful for him. I'd understand his pain based on the decisions of who to include in this game's roster as well as who to exclude. The crazy random requests in this thread make me feel for him even more, since a lot of people seem more intent on seeing their own requests make it into the game without any real understanding of why that should be so or seem intent on seeing certain characters cut because... "They're not important to me!".
What a tough decision....

I see sooooooo many requests for third-party characters when in reality, that should be kept to a minimum considering the number of legal hoops Nintendo has to jump through in order to include them in the game, let alone coding a moveset onto them. And even then, it'd be painful to see them cut. I'm a big fan of Snake and Sonic, and I'm content with their inclusion into the game, even if they're the only representatives of their respective franchises (Though it'd be AWESOME if Raiden and Knuckles made it in, but that's wishful thinking)

Also, how come no-one EVER mentions the obscure franchises that Sakurai gives representation in Smash Bros?! EACH and EVERY game in the franchise has given an oddball franchise its moment in the sun, and that moment was so critical that noone would have known about it otherwise. Would we have gone back to try getting Earthbound or playing it on emulators if we didn't know who Ness was? Would we have gotten Fire Emblem to the states if Marth and Roy were cut from the international Melee release? Would we have gotten the awesome Kid Icarus: Uprising if Pit didn't make a comeback?... thought so. I wish we can see more people requesting obscure Nintendo franchises and characters to make a comeback.

Here's some surprise characters I have my fingers crossed for:

Issa ( Sin & Punishment: Star Successor ). Not sure about this one, since this was published by Treasure and I think Nintendo kinda needs their permission to put this character in. It'd be great though, considering that the games themselves are amazing rail-shooters and need more attention.
Lip ( Panel de Pon ). I find it kind of funny how the Lip's Stick item has been appearing in the latter two Smash Bros. games, yet we have no clue what game that item is from or why we should care now... That can change.
Captain Rainbow(Need more info...).

Trying to avoid characters already mentioned like Shulk, Little Mac, and whoever was in Pandora's Tower, but you guys get the idea...


Hope the stresses of designing this game won't break him completely... I can already barely imagine what working on Melee was like, since he had a grand total of 13 months of dedicated time to work on that game.... no vacations or breaks... just work... Wow....

I really should head to bed but then I saw the part of your post where you mentioned Lip and I squealed with joy. I'd love to see Lip in Super Smash Bros; she's my most wanted character.

Anyway, I pretty much agree with everything you had to say. It's frustrating to see so many requests for third party characters, not just in the fact that obtaining third party rights is tricky but also in the fact that SSB is a Nintendo based fighter... when you have a library as large as Nintendo's to explore, I'd like to see it explored.

I agree on your statement about how we should think more of what characters should warrant inclusion rather than what characters we'd like to see. I'd love to see Shy Guy in the game but he doesn't deserve to be in the game as much as other characters. Fans suggest tons of Legend of Zelda characters such as Minda and Ghirahim who have only had one appearance, yet ignore the more likely and multiple appearing characters such as Tingle and Vaati (well, more so for the former than the latter).

You're right on your mentioning of obscure franchises. Heck, in the case of Ness, those of us in the UK and Europe never even received one Mother game... now we're getting Earthbound on the Wii U virtual console and I can finally see what all the fuss is about. As said before, my most wanted character is the fairly obscure Lip from Panel de Pon but I would also love to see the likes of Hikari and Donbe from Shin Onigashima and DeMille from Tomato Adventure. I highly doubt they would get in but I'd like it if they did. I also think it would be great if Mike Jones from Star Tropics were in the game, I have no interest in him personally but it would be a real treat to US fans and an obscure surprise to the Japanese fans who have likely never heard of him. Still, my highest hopes are to Lip appearing in the game.

 

[Loop Stricken]

And I'm just sitting here wanting Mewtwo back.

No, not Mewthree or whatever that fucking abomination will be called. No.

 

[Turner Shanks]

Why does everyone seem to think Game & Watch should be cut? I love that character, he has a unique moveset, and he represents a distinct part of Nintendo history.

 

[thebobmaster_v1legacy]

snip.

I agree with most of what you said. I only wanted to comment on your choices of new characters. Little Mac was in Brawl...as an assist trophy. Honestly, that was fine for me, because he doesn't really have much to him other than being a boxer. What special moves would he have? As for Ridley, I love the idea of him being a new character, but the logistics of putting him as a playable character, considering his size difference to the rest of the cast, would be tricky to figure out. I mean, Bowser is a lot bigger than Mario, but Ridley is the size of 4 or 5 Bowsers. They'd have to scale him down, figure out how to make him move (since he isn't bipedal)...better to just leave him as he was in Brawl, a boss character.

Ridley's size being a problem is a silly but constant point people bring up. Bowser's size changes constantly in his games, while Olimar's about the size of a GameCube memory card but had his size increased for Brawl. I assure you, it wouldn't be a big deal to adjust his size for SSB. Besides, Metroid is in need of another representative and he is the best they've got. Still thank you very much for replying to my comment, I appreciate it.

I see your point with Little Mac, and I could see it working. Ridley, on the other hand...Ridley's size also changes in between games, but even at the smallest, he was at least 3 times the size of Samus. Even if they work out the scale, they'd still need to work out how to have him move. I'd like another Metroid representative, but the choices are either too large/non-bipedal (Ridley, Kraid) or one-shot characters (Rundas, Gandrayda).

 

[Lovely Mixture]

I see your point with Little Mac, and I could see it working. Ridley, on the other hand...Ridley's size also changes in between games, but even at the smallest, he was at least 3 times the size of Samus. Even if they work out the scale, they'd still need to work out how to have him move. I'd like another Metroid representative, but the choices are either too large/non-bipedal (Ridley, Kraid) or one-shot characters (Rundas, Gandrayda).

They should have a generic space pirate. It might break the flow of having named characters, but those guys don't get enough love.

 

[Infernal Lawyer]

Why does everyone seem to think Game & Watch should be cut? I love that character, he has a unique moveset, and he represents a distinct part of Nintendo history.

He probably won't be though, and neither will R.O.B.. The entire point of those two obscure characters, like the Wii Fit trainer, was to be unexpected additions to the roster. But hey, I may be proven wrong.

OT: Wow, this guy cares? No 'deal with it' attitude? And to think people are laying down all the praise onto Sony.

 

[Elvis Starburst]

Am I one of the only people excited to hear him say "We're rebuilding the characters from the ground up?" I mean, that sounds awesome o.o Some nice new moves for every character would be great!~

I actually had a feeling about this, cause in the trailer you see Pit do maybe 1 attack, using a weapon from Kid Icarus Uprising called the Upperdash Arm. I realized they must be re-doing his moveset to better suit the game he's from. If that's going on, why not for other characters too? Looking forward to it~

 

[Hero of Lime]

Poor Sakurai, he has one of the hardest jobs a developer could have. Just to add to the conversation, I'm going to assume that any characters who have been around for more than one Smash Bros. game will probably stay. For example, Mr. Game and Watch will most likely stay since he obviously returned for Brawl. I am worried that this game will have less characters than Brawl though, if I had my way there would be at least 50 fighters, I won't hold my breath of course.

Even though Jigglypuff is a long time veteran, I really wish she would be replaced, there so many better Pokemon they could use.

 

[Baronvvoltage]

Add bald bull or super macho man from punchout. Then have either of them try an counter falcon "PANCH". Game = worth it.

 

[shadowstriker86]

Not sure why so many people hate ROB. I think he's one of the most fun characters to play as.

OT: If he really feels that bad? Have the cut characters return as DLC if people want them bad enough. There. Stress problem solved. Now as far as a character being cut that I wouldn't miss.....King Dedede.